THE MIDDLE EAST NEEDS TO REDISCOVER ITS MARKET ROOTS

摘要

Enterprise, banking, free markets and free-market economic policies are often assumed to have a relatively new Western origin. In fact, the practice of market exchange had already evolved 4,000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. Later, market-based economies independently also developed in China and India. The oldest recorded intellectual support for free-market economic policy is found in ancient Persia and China. Acknowledging the Eastern roots of capitalism is important at a time when Eastern cultures are moving towards a market renaissance.